Dove season opener, copper thieves keeps Texas wardens busy

It has been a couple of weeks – well , a little longer; sorry about that - since we’ve looked at some of recent cases and incidents Texas Parks and Wildlife Department game wardens have worked.

Since then, dove season opened in much of the state, and wardens have spent a lot of time checking hunters as well as focusing on fishing and boating law enforcement.

Not surprising, most of the following brief reports touch on hunting-related cases – the dove opener is a major event drawing hundreds of thousands of folks afield.

Surprisingly – at least to me – is the number of people busted for “double-bagging’ – taking a daily limit of doves in the morning, then going back in the afternoon and taking more doves.

It’s called a daily limit for a reason.

More surprising, though, is the number of baiting-related cases wardens made on dove hunters. (I hesitate to call them “hunters;” people who knowingly and with intent break hunting regulations are poachers, not hunters.)

Baiting – spreading grain or other food or material to attract wildlife – is not illegal. But hunting migratory game birds over bait is a violation of state and federal laws.

And rightly so; doves and ducks and geese and other fowl can become so addicted to the abundant and easily accessed bait that they gather in large numbers and lose much of their normal wariness.

Hunting over bait isn’t just illegal, it’s unfair. (We’ll leave any discussion concerning the ethics of hunting deer, quail and turkey and other non-migratory game that can legally be hunted using bait for another day.)

And don’t even try to defend baiting by saying bag limits restrain people hunting birds over bait from taking any more birds than they could have if they’d hunted without bait. Almost invariably, wardens busting folks hunting over bait find the perpetrators also violated bag limits – often grossly. And they’re almost certain to have violated other laws, too.

Everyone knows hunting doves over bait is illegal. And the fines and penalties for hunting over bait and for even placing bait for the purpose of attracting birds for hunting are considerable, especially if the cases are filed in federal courts.

Still, people think they can get away with it.

Some probably do. A lot don’t. See below.

On September 2, Edwards County Game Warden Scott Holly and Kimble County Game Warden Lee Morrison teamed up to check dove hunters in the Carta Valley area of Edwards County.

After sunset, the two wardens proceeded to an area identified by reports as having been seeing possible road hunting for axis deer.

Just as the wardens pulled in to their set, a truck drove by pulling a trailer with no lights.

The wardens initiated a traffic stop to inform the driver that his trailer lights were out.

When the wardens approached the vehicle, both noticed dove feathers stuck to the bed of the truck as well as spotted a case of shotgun shells with blood on it.

Wardens Holly and Morrison contacted the occupants and observed shotguns lying on the front seat.

When asked about hunting, the occupants stated they had not done any dove hunting that afternoon.

With the fresh evidence in front of them, Holly and Morrison asked again, and the two then stated that they had shot around 34 to 37 dove the day before.

Holly and Morrison questioned the hunters about the fresh feathers and wet blood that was all over the bed of the truck.

The two hunters then admitted that they had shot a few birds and left them at the ranch.

When asked how many birds had been shot, the two hunters said “a lot!”

When asked what a lot was, the two stated they had, that afternoon, shot more than 100 birds between the two of them.

One of the suspects did not have a current hunting license.

The wardens followed the suspects back to the ranch to inspect the birds.

Once at the ranch, the two suspects retrieved what came out to be 109 doves they had killed that afternoon.

After limits were separated for that day for the one suspect who had a valid hunting license, wardens confiscated the remaining 94 birds were confiscated. Because the other suspected didn’t have a license, wardens confiscated another 19 birds from his residence.

The wardens filed on the hunters for over the daily bag limit, hunter education violation, no hunting license and no trailer lights.

Cases pending.

September 1, during the first contact of the 2011 dove season, Tarrant County Game Wardens John Padgett and David Vannoy found two hunters with unplugged shotguns and a dead scissor-tailed flycatcher.

Later that afternoon, Wardens Padgett and Vannoy, while checking hunters in another field, had one subject state that he had taken his bag limit of doves during his morning hunt.

Warden Vannoy checked 12 dove in the subject’s bag and obtained a written confession about the limit of dove killed that morning.

Warden Padgett found further evidence of freshly killed birds in the brush.

With the evidence compiled against him, the subject admitted to killing 19 dove over the daily bag limit.

Multiple cases and civil restitution are pending.

Game Wardens Michael McCall and Coley Leonard were patrolling Comal County working dove hunting activity early on Sept. 1 when they came across a group of hunters hunting a field with a good concentration of birds.

The hunters were having much better “luck” than other hunters in the area, and wardens McCall and Leonard quickly found the reason. They easily found a good amount of cracked corn and milo that had been spread in the field.

Once the dust cleared, the wardens filed cases for hunting dove over bait on 26 hunters and filed a case of placing bait to attract dove on the property owner.

A total of 127 unlawfully taken doves were confiscated and donated to people in the community.

Civil restitution was also filed on the group of hunters.

While patrolling the Trinity River bottoms on Aug. 28, Dallas County Warden Dave Bosecker observed a large cloud of smoke coming from an area along the river levee that has been used in the past by copper wire thieves to burn insulation from copper wire prior to selling the wire.

Warden Bosecker slipped up on the area and caught two men doing just that.

One of the men was taken into custody immediately while the other fled but was apprehended an hour later at a nearby truck stop.

When asked, the man that ran said he did so because he was on probation for burglary.

Cases pending.

When moving up Cedar Bayou in Baytown Aug. 28 while completing intermediate boat training, Chambers County Game Wardens John Feist and Bobby Jobes came across a disabled personal watercraft ( PWC) under a road bridge with a tug pushing a barge bearing down on it.

The operator of the PWC was so scared that he had frozen looking up at the barge coming directly at him.

The tug captain had slowed the barge, but momentum was carrying it on towards the PWC.

Warden Feist maneuvered the patrol boat – the agency’s recently commissioned PV Detwiler, a fully-outfitted SAFE boat – to be a bumper between the PWC and the side of the barge as it slowly floated by.

Luckily, neither the PWC nor was the PV Detwiler was struck by the barge.

Turns out, the PWC operator had been so paralyzed with fear concerning the approaching barge that he did not realize that the PWC’s kill switch was detached, which was the reason the PWC would not start.

No damage and no injuries.

Cameron County Game Wardens Marcus Vela and Santana Torres received information Aug. 4 that a commercial crab fisherman had set out several crab traps in freshwater. Under state law, crab traps may be set only in water officially designated as saltwater.

The wardens responded to the area described to them and located a total of 73 crab traps on the Arroyo Colorado River.

The wardens had begun the hot, physically demanding, painstaking task of retrieving the mud and crab laden traps when Warden Vela received a phone call from the trap owner.

The wardens met up with the trap owner at the boat ramp and advised him of the violations.

After receiving a quick lesson in freshwater/saltwater boundaries from the wardens, the violator was issued multiple citations.

The wardens “graciously” allowed him to retrieve his own traps and release all the crabs back into the water.

The violator subsequently entered a guilty plea in court, and was sentenced to a fine of $7,500. The fine was later reduced to $3,800.

Matagorda County Game Warden Aaron Koenig and Wharton County Game Warden Chris Bird were patrolling the Colorado River near Matagorda on Sept.3.

During a water safety inspection on th Colorado River Sept. 3, Matagorda County Game Warden Aaron Koenig and Wharton County Game Warden Chris recognized a familiar face that both had cited for fishing violations and had also warned at the beginning of summer about his boat not being currently registered.

The boat now displayed a current 2012 registration decal, and Warden Koenig checked the assigned registration through communications where it came back still as an out-of-date registration and in another owner’s name.

Warden Bird then checked the decal serial number through communications where it came back to a different vessel owned by the current operator.

The operator was cited for unregistered vessel, failure to transfer ownership, and display of fictitious decal.

While working a large group of dove hunters in Waller County on opening day, Harris County Game Warden Cullen Stakes noticed one individual leave the spot he was hunting and move into a thick, brushy area nearby.

After a short search, Warden Stakes located the individual and determined that the hunter was using an unplugged shotgun.

A criminal history check revealed that the violator, an Army National Guardsman, was wanted on an outstanding warrant for Military Desertion.

Game Warden Stakes, who also happens to be Captain Cullen Stakes of the Army National Guard, arrested the individual and transported him to the Waller County Jail.

Wardens Baker and Norris had a very productive opening weekend for special whitewing season in Starr County.

Through the weekend, the wardens located hunters hunting over bait, in closed area, with unplugged shotguns, no hunter safety, killing protected species, and one field with about 15 hunters and not a license among them.

Needless to say, several appointments with the local magistrates were arranged!

While patrolling for dove hunters, Starr County Game Warden, Dennis Gazaway Jr. observed a vehicle heading towards the river from Hwy 83.

As Gazaway approached the suspect vehicle, he observed two subjects exiting the brush with large bundles.

Upon seeing Gazaway, the subjects dropped the bundles and absconded back into the brush. Gazaway approached the suspect vehicle and found three more bundles of what appeared to be marijuana.

The marijuana, 466.6 pounds, and the vehicle were turned over to Starr County Sheriff’s Department.

Llano Game Wardens Rick Snitkin and Kevin Webb filed on five dove hunters who were hunting a deer feeder that was baited with milo.

The group’s retrieving, which parked itself under the tripod feeder after ever retrieve, as a pretty good clue to the baiting issue.

One of the subjects was arrested for Class B warrants.

On September 2, Bowie County Game Wardens Shawn Hervey and Doug Williams stopped a couple on a Jet Ski for an expired registration and not wearing their PFDs.

After moving to shore, the wardens found two small bags of marijuana on the Jet Ski.

They also found an SKS rifle in the suspect’s vehicle, with blood on the rifles’ bayonet. When asked, the owner stated he had killed a deer the other night.

Several citations were issued and investigation continues on the other suspect who was involved in killing the deer.

7 Responses

With all of these dead doves being stashed all over the place I saw no mention made of refrigeration being used. It sounds like the vast majority of these birds are just being shot and then left to spoil. There is never any shortage of slob hunters around to give the sport a bad name, and it does have a bad name these days.

I can remember years ago when white wing dove hunting was something to look forward to. I took my son on his first hunt there 25 years ago. Now if you even think about going down there, you had better have a Dillon Mini Gun and 50,000 rounds of ammo on your vehicle just for protection. Stinks how the drug cartels ruined even that for Texas hunters. I’d come out of retirement and fly door gunner on the first gunship that wants to fly the river.

Depends on your definition of trouble.
If a warden checks your license, and you are in violation of the Hunter Education requirements, you’ll get a citation. It’s a Class C misdemeanor. But Texas law allows you to go to court within 10 days of receiving the citation and tell the judge you intend to take the course. If you take and pass the course within 90 days, the court drops the charge.
You can also purchase a one-time, one-year hunter education deferral.
You can find more information here:http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/faq/learning/hunter_education/

Texas law mandates anyone born before Sept. 2, 1971 must have taken and passed a certified hunter education course before legally hunting. Violation of the hunter education requirements is one of the most common citations Texas wardens write.